Apps: Adding logic to your app
Workflows
Automate multi-step backend work that runs on a schedule, when data changes, when people sign up, or when another service calls it.
Automate multi-step backend work that runs on a schedule, when data changes, when people sign up, or when another service calls it.
A workflow is a trigger plus steps. Describe what should happen in the chat, for example "When a new lead signs up, email them a welcome, wait 2 days, and follow up if they haven't booked a call", and Draftship builds it. Each workflow is a file in draftship/workflows/ and appears in Dashboard → Workflows as a diagram.
Workflows replace automations for new work. Apps that already have automations keep them.
| Trigger | Starts when | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Schedule | every N minutes (at least 5), at a time of day (in your time zone, optionally on certain weekdays), or once at a date and time | "Every morning at 8:00, email me yesterday's orders" |
| Data change | a record is created, updated or deleted, optionally only when a condition holds, like "status changed to shipped" | "When an order ships, email the customer" |
| Sign-up / sign-in | someone creates an account in your app or signs in | "Welcome new users and add them to my newsletter" |
| Agent chat | someone starts a conversation with one of your AI agents | "Email me when someone starts a support chat" |
| Publish | a new version of your app goes live | "Post in Slack when I publish" |
| Webhook | another service POSTs to the workflow's secret URL | "When Stripe sends a payment, mark the order as paid" |
| Manual | only when you click Run now |
| Step | Does |
|---|---|
| Backend function | runs one of your app's backend functions with the trigger data; its answer is available to later steps |
| sends an email (needs email set up) | |
| Create / update record | writes to your data |
| Ask AI | asks the AI, optionally for structured data like { "severity": "high" } |
| Wait | pauses for seconds up to 30 days, then continues automatically, even after a restart |
| Condition | takes a "yes" or "no" path depending on the trigger data or earlier steps |
Steps can use values from the trigger and earlier steps, such as the new record's email or the AI's answer.
Open a workflow to see its diagram, with a check or cross on each step of the latest run, and its run history. Click a run to see what each step received and returned, and why a step failed.
Changing a workflow creates a new version. Runs already in progress finish on the version they started with. If you remove a workflow from the app, it's archived with its history.
A workflow never re-triggers itself when it changes the record that started it. The testing agent doesn't start workflows.